TOKYO, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Pan Pacific Copper, Japan’s biggest copper smelter, said on Monday it expects copper prices to rise to $7,280 a tonne in 2018 and $7,720 a tonne in 2019, against $6,100/T in 2017, its executive said on Monday.

The company expects global consumption of refined copper to increase by 2 percent in 2018 from this year while supply is seen to climb only by 1.3 percent, Satoshi Arai, Pan Pacific’s executive officer, told a news conference. (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Robert Birsel)